Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, dedicated to the nation the Balasore-Haldia-Durgapur section of Indian Oil Corporation’s Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG Pipeline at a grand function held in Baripada in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha today.

The 513-km Balasore-Haldia-Durgapur section with spur lines, including storage facilities at Haldia, was completed recently while the 157-km Paradip-Balasore section was dedicated to the nation in April 2018.

The 670-km pipeline, with a project cost of Rs. 1,330 crore, will ensure uninterrupted supply of LPG cooking gas to lakhs of people in four districts each of Odisha and West Bengal. The pipeline originates from Paradip Refinery in Odisha and traverses 240-km of the State through Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore districts, while in West Bengal, it traverses 430-km through the districts of Purbi Medinapur, Bardhwan, Hooghly and Howrah, transporting LPG to various upcountry bottling plants en route.

The throughput capacities of Paradip-Haldia and Haldia-Durgapur sections of the LPG pipeline are 1.1 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) and 1.3 MMTPA, respectively. Besides IndianOil’s Paradip Refinery as the source of LPG supply at the originating station, LPG will be supplied from the import terminal of IndianOil-Petronas Private Ltd. (IPPL) located at Haldia.

The pipeline will provide a crucial logistical link in achieving the ambitious agenda of providing cleaner LPG fuel to households, especially under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana . The pipeline will also bring down movement of LPG by road and decongest the roads. The pipeline has generated employment opportunities for thousands of persons in the region.

The pipeline is under further augmentation and is being extended to Bihar for feeding the bottling plants at Banka, Patna and Muzaffarpur. In addition to LPG inputs from Paradip Refinery and IPPL-Haldia, additional LPG inputs are envisaged from the upcoming LPG import terminal at Paradip and also from IndianOil’s Barauni Refinery.

In the near future, this pipeline network will provide one of the largest infrastructure facilities for transportation of LPG not only in eastern India but will have potential to cater to the needs of Nepal also.

lndianOil operates a network of 13,845 km of cross-country pipelines for transporting crude oil, refined petroleum products and natural gas, with a cumulative throughput capacity of 94.16 MMTPA of oil and 9.5 MMSCMD of gas.